Alexandre Desplat revealed in an interview on Radio Classique’s Culture Club that he will be reuniting with director Gareth Edwards on the upcoming Star Wars spinoff feature Rogue One. Felicity Jones is attached to star in the film, which is scripted by Chris Weitz (Cinderella, The Golden Compass). No plot details have been revealed yet, but the movie is said to be the first in a series of big-screen adventures that explores the characters and events beyond the core Star Wars saga. Kathleen Kennedy (Jurassic Park, The Sixth Sense, Lincoln) and Tony To (Band of Brothers, The Pacific) are producing the Lucasfilm production. John Knoll is executive producing the project with Simon Emanuel and Jason McGatlin. Desplat has previously collaborated with Edwards on last year’s Godzilla. Rogue One is set to be released on December 16, 2016 by Walt Disney Pictures.

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I also think it could be worse. And I also thought that the first person after John Williams should be Joel McNeely to do this. Shadows Of The Empire for example was – in my opinion – well done. But maybe the spin-offs have to be different from the rest of the saga and thus we need another composer, and Desplat has shown that he has the ability to do diverse jobs. Previously I rated him as a composer of “french love films” but at least since Harry Potter 7.1 + 2 I realized my stereotypical thinking (and nobody needs that!). I didn’t really enjoy his Potter scores but I grant him that he feels with the atmosphere of the movie and with the composer.
With this, let me conclude: Mercifully much of the sound is done by the orchestrators like Conrad Pope (who’s done the prequels) and others. So I’m just excited which leitmotifs we are going to hear in 2016.

His Potter scores aren’t necessarily bad, but they’re not widely representative of the diverse sound he’s capable of. His scores to films such as Lust, Caution and The Ides of March, however, are. I find he’s the type of composer who can adapt well to the situation vs. falling into a rut and producing the same material over and over again. A true rarity these days.